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Indian doubles ace Divij Sharan climbed eight places to a career-best 36th in the new world rankings released on Monday, July 16, 2018. The southpaw was the only Indian to reach the quarter-finals at the Wimbledon Championships this year, thereby registering his best performance ever at any Major tournament.
His and Artem Sitak’s run was ended by the eventual champions, Mike Bryan and Jack Sock in four sets.
Sharan has been India’s most consistent doubles player for the entire 2018 season. He has made it to six semi-finals at ATP 250 tournaments, besides winning one Challenger title.
There was good news for Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan, Vishnu Vardhan and N Sriram Balaji as well. Vardhan and Balaji qualified for Wimbledon and even won a round. That has hauled Vardhan up 15 places to 92nd and Balaji up 11 spots to 99th.
Nedunchezhiyan, meanwhile, accumulated points from not just qualifying for the main draw of the grasscourt Major, but also from triumphing at the Winnetka Challenger a week later. The Chennai player has climbed five spots to 91st.
Rohan Bopanna, who had to retire in the second round at SW19 due to a pinched nerve, slipped three rungs to 27th. Leander Paes is now 75th while Purav Raja is placed at 81st.
In singles, Yuki Bhambri is 85th and continues to be the only Indian in the top 100. Ramkumar Ramanathan and Prajnesh Gunneswaran dropped 21 spots each to be 161st and 184th respectively.
Big jump for Raina
In WTA, Ankita Raina made a big jump of 13 places to 201st after winning one round in qualifying at Wimbledon and following it up with a title at the $25,000 ITF Pro Circuit event in Nonthaburi, Thailand. The 25-year-old Indian was the second seed at this tournament and prevailed over the fourth seeded Risa Ozaki of Japan 6-2, 6-3 in the final.
20-year-old Karman Thandi is right on her heels as she too soared nine spots to be 216th.
In doubles, Sania Mirza, who is expecting her first child, still continues to be the No. 1 Indian, despite falling to 37th.
